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Weather: A slight chance of showers before 11am, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11am and 2pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Monday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 8pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 8pm and 2am, then a slight chance of showers after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 67. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
The Bunnell City Commission meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall on Commerce Parkway. To access meeting agendas, materials and minutes, go here.
Flagler County’s Land Acquisition Committee meets at 3 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 3rd floor engineering conference room, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notably: Page five, above the fold, of the May 11, 1902 New York Times, toward the end of the the American genocide of Filipinos, one reads the following headline: Filipinos Are Hard People to Teach.” Below that, a subhead: “They Still Talk of Their Dreams of Independence.” Several paragraphs down, we read: “In many a town last September there were public demonstrations to greet the arrival of the American teachers who had come to bring light and knowledge of the West to the poor, oppressed Filipino. Night schools were started with rooms full of men eager to learn to read and write and speak the English tongue. But alas, it meant work and study, and there have been fallings off in the schools. One night school started in Cebu with sixty. In two weeks there were six who did learn to use the language very readily. This exemplifies a trait of the people. It is only the bright, smart ones who forge ahead. You rarely hear of such a character as the “Poler,” the “Grind,” or the other terms used to distinguish a plodder in the American universities. Those Filipinos who have had education in Manila under the Jesuits, those towns which have fair schools, cannot understand the policy of the Americans in desiring to send teachers to places where the people are ignorant. “What’s the use? Those people are ignorant and don’t know anything?” they say to Superintendent and teacher.” Oddly enough, my second father, when he was a Jesuit priest (he had long abandoned the priesthood by the time he met my widowed mother in 1978) had been a teacher in the Philippines, though I don’t recall him ever referring to Filipinos as difficult to teach. I often remembering complaining about how difficult it was to read American newspapers. I can see why.
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
May 2026
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
FPC and Matanzas High School Graduations at Ocean Center
Al-Anon Family Groups
June 2026
Flagler County Commission Morning Meeting
Beverly Beach Town Commission meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
For the full calendar, go here.
Life is big enough for any story. I walk in the street with tears running down my face; I walk in a world of sales racks and flavored refreshments, marching crowds, broken streets, and steam pouring through the cracks. Jackhammers, roaring buses, women striding into traffic, knifelike in their high, sharp heels, past windows full of faces, products, bright admonishments, light, and dust. Slouching employees smoke in doorways; waiters clear outdoor tables. Eaters lounge before empty plates, legs spread, working their phones. Flocks of pigeons, a careful rat. At this newsstand, I know the proprietor; he catches my eye and tactfully registers my tears with the slightest change in his expression. Deep in his cave of fevered headlines and gaudy faces, he shivers with cold and fights to breathe; his lungs are failing as he sells magazines and bottled water, mints and little basil plants. We greet each other; I don’t say but I think, Hello, brother. And life rushes by. On the corner people play instruments and sing. Sullen men sit with filthy dogs and beg. In the subway a hawk-nosed boy with dyed, stringy, somehow elegant hair squats and manipulates crude puppets to sexy music amid a weird tableau of old toys. There is something sinister; he looks up with a pale, lewd eye. An older woman laughs too loudly, trying to get his attention. A beggar looks at me and says, “Don’t be so sad. It’ll get better by and by.” And I believe him. There will be something else for me. If not here, then in London, I can feel it. I am on the ground and bleeding, but I will stand up again. I will sing songs of praise.
–From Mary Gaitskill’s “This Is Pleasure,” The New Yorker, July 8, 2019.
Ray W. says
It’s been more than 10 weeks since commercial traffic into and out of the Strait of Hormuz largely ceased. Some reports have more than one billion barrels of crude oil being lost to the international marketplace. The argument that America is energy independent, re: fossil fuels, has lost much of its persuasive force.
So, I looked for stories about how America can become more independent from fossil fuels.
This from both a 2025 PBS article and a Myrtle Beach Sun News story.
In December 2024, a 45-unit wind turbine power plant opened in Chowan County, North Carolina. Each turbine occupies at its base one-half acre of woodland or farmland, but the entire project is spread over 6,000 acres of privately-owned land. Because the project is onshore, federal oversight does not apply. On top of lease payments to private landowners, Chowan County itself will receive revenues of a minimum of $33 million, and potentially up to $50 million, spread over 30 years. The project is the largest single taxpayer in the county. Not bad for the use of 22.5 acres of farmland and woodland.
Apex Clean Energy, the plant’s operator, is reported to have signed a long-term “power purchase agreement” with Google, so selling the electricity produced by the project is not an issue.
Able to produce power at wind speeds as slow as 7 mph, at full output the turbines can generate as much as 189 megawatts, enough to power as many as 61,000 homes.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I checked.
Chowan County, located on the north side of the Albemarle Sound, is sparsely populated, having recently declined in populace to some 13,500 residents at the 2020 census. It was founded some 450 years ago and its county seat, Edenton, was once the state capital of the once English colony. Something tells me that county residents and officials welcome the increased tax base and revenue provided by the power plant.
I looked further.
Yesterday, the Chowan Herald published a story about a May 4-released county budget proposal for next year.
This year, per the reporter, Chowan County engaged in a revaluation of its total taxable real properties, yielding a valuation higher by an average of 26% to $3.04 billion. How much of that revaluation came from the new wind farm was not reported.
The budget proposal cuts the current year’s property tax rate from 69.5 cents per $100 in assessed value to 60.25 cents per $100. This cut will still yield $1.52 million more in county government revenue, which will rise to $30.63 million. The new power plant is anticipated to provide in the coming budget year $700,000 toward the proposed increase in county revenue.
Ray W. says
This from an Oil Price US story. Last week, according to the weekly Baker Hughes rig count, the number of active oil rigs rose by a count of two to 410, a figure down by 57 drilling rigs from a year ago.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
A number of recent industry stories hold that American energy extractors still think that the bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz will soon resolve itself. Better to reap profits on existing well outputs than to spend too much money drilling too many new wells, reporters write.
Ray W. says
According to a story by The Telegraph, industry analysts are telling the reporter that worldwide jet and diesel fuel stocks and international crude oil reserves are projected to hit a “tipping point” by the end of May and be “depleted” by the end of June, should the Strait of Hormuz remain closed to commercial traffic.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Perhaps this is the most memorable recent example of the concept of “economic lag time.” A change of government policy or a manipulation of a marketplace seldom instantly impacts consumers.
Yes, a number of the more gullibly stupid and consistently dishonest commenters among us blamed President Biden for high egg prices between 2022-2024, when the true culprits were a highly virulent strain of avian flu carried by flocks of migratory wild birds and a manipulative set of egg producers, distributors and retailers. When egg prices hit a record high in March 2025, not one of those gullibly stupid and consistently dishonest commenters blamed President Trump for the rising prices.
Let’s face it. There are a number of liars and lie-launderers who post comments to the FlaglerLive forum. We all know, or ought to know, that no FlaglerLive reader can ever accept at face value anything these consistently dishonest people post.
Ray W. says
The BBC reports that London prices for saffron are spiking upwards since the onset of war with Iran. Iranian farmers grow 90% of the global saffron supply. What once cost £1,200 per kilo of saffron to restaurateurs now commands upwards of £2,000 per kilo.
Make of this what you will.